Can't restore...

Since January I've been running two backups each week - one of important data files and another of music. Did a full backup at the start and then have done incremental backup each week.

My hard disk has died - and now I discover one of the backup sets doesn't work. TI (9.3854) just says that each file is "not a backup file" - each is a .tib file and TI was happy enough to create a new incremental backup each week.

Of course it is the important data that doesn't work - and the music is just fine.

Since January I've been running two backups each week - one of important data files and another of music. Did a full backup at the start and then have done incremental backup each week.

My hard disk has died - and now I discover one of the backup sets doesn't work. TI (9.3854) just says that each file is "not a backup file" - each is a .tib file and TI was happy enough to create a new incremental backup each week.

Of course it is the important data that doesn't work - and the music is just fine.

Am backing up to an external USB HD.

Any ideas?

Peter

Click to expand...

Are the data file incremental backups and the original ful data file full backup in the same folder on the external drive?

Did you try restoring just the full backup by selecting it instead of the latest incremental backup?

How has your hard drive failed? Is it just unbootable or is it completely unreadable? Is it recognized in the BIOS?

If you boot from the Acronis Recovery CD, is your hard drive listed; and can you make an image backup of the drive to the external hard drive?

I hope that you can recover all or most of your data, but you have learned the hard way that you never know for sure whether you have a backup until you successfully restore. Also, you have only one backup, and it's much safer to have more than one backup of important data. Although you could have started another full backup on the same external drive, that's really only one backup since it is on a single drive. Two backups means two different media for security. As a final point, most people here don't like to make more than half a dozen incremental backups before creating another new, full backup. Since all later incrementals require all the previous incrementals, one bad incremental makes all the later ones useless.

If you boot from the Acronis Recovery CD, is your hard drive listed; and can you make an image backup of the drive to the external hard drive?

** can't make an image - finds too many errors **

I hope that you can recover all or most of your data, but you have learned the hard way that you never know for sure whether you have a backup until you successfully restore. Also, you have only one backup, and it's much safer to have more than one backup of important data. Although you could have started another full backup on the same external drive, that's really only one backup since it is on a single drive. Two backups means two different media for security. As a final point, most people here don't like to make more than half a dozen incremental backups before creating another new, full backup. Since all later incrementals require all the previous incrementals, one bad incremental makes all the later ones useless.

Regarding the bad files: Is there any spaces or extra periods in the name and does it end with ".tib"? If yes, maybe rename the files so that they are something plain and simple-- such as any of these samples.
mybackup.tib
mybackup-1.tib
Aug29-1.tib

Will try to figure out how to do "mount" - doesn't seem an obvious choice in the software... Is this what TI v9 calls "plug image"?

Didn't validate. Didn't know I should have done... until it all went horribly wrong and I read these nice forums...

Sigh.

Peter

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Yes. It used to be "plug". In my version of TI9 B3677 it is "Mount". Right click on the .tib file. One of your choice should be "Mount". Click on "Mount" to assign a virtual drive letter and you will be able to use windows explorer to browse the image file.

Were the backup files created with 3854? If created with earler version, you might try using the earler version Rescue Cd. Protect what you have. Don't jeopardize your current copies. Make copies of your photos onto DVD now before anything else happens.

This is probably the best I'm going to get sadly. Need to rethink backup for future plans...

Click to expand...

Peter,
Hope your recovery efforts are successful. Many of us think it's wise to separate data and media files from the imaging process, to avoid exactly the problem you've run into. Once things have settled down, you might find this thread interesting: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=164175.